


The Proposal

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Foxtrot [66]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, The Dollhouse - Fandom
Genre: Crossover, F/M, M/M, not actually RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-27 10:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6280975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Rodney proposes to John, after getting some advice from Evan Lorne and Joe. Thanks to the lovely <a class="i-ljuser-profile" href="http://brumeier.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://brumeier.livejournal.com/">brumeier</a> who let me know about the mini-fest. :)</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> Rodney proposes to John, after getting some advice from Evan Lorne and Joe. Thanks to the lovely [](http://brumeier.livejournal.com/profile)[brumeier](http://brumeier.livejournal.com/) who let me know about the mini-fest. :)

Rodney first sprung the question on Evan, who was elbow-deep in a giant bowl of stuffing for the Very Early Thanksgiving he always threw for the newest wave of Atlantis marines before they shipped out to another galaxy and missed two of America's biggest holidays (it was only July, but Evan insisted that Preparation Was The Key To Air Power).

"How would you propose to Joe?"

Evan almost knocked the entire bowl to the kitchen floor, he started so violently. "What? Me? Propose to Joe? What makes you think I've ever thought of proposing to Joe?"

Rodney reached out and righted the bowl for Evan so he wouldn't have to try to do so with his sticky hands. "I realize I'm not the most observant when it comes to interpersonal relations, but even I notice the way you look longingly at that one jewelry store whenever we go into town for art supplies."

A bright blush crept up Evan's cheeks. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He cast a hunted look over his shoulder. "Besides, why do you care how I'd propose to Joe? You're not planning on proposing to him, are you?" The dangerous glint in his blue eyes reminded Rodney that, for all that Evan was more likely to be paint-spattered than blood-spattered these days, he'd spent the majority of his life as a soldier.

"No," Rodney said, a little too quickly, and Evan studied him incisively for one more moment before he returned to tossing the stuffing. "I want to propose to John, and I wondered if you had any ideas."

"Even though Joe and John spent the majority of their lives sharing a mind and a body, they're not the same person," Evan said.

"Yes, I know that, but I just need some ideas. I'm not very good at the whole romance thing."

Evan's expression softened. "John loves you, no question about it. And you do just fine at romance. He's never complained about any romantic gesture you've ever planned for him."

"But you always help," Rodney pointed out.

"I just advise," Evan said loftily. "You know John better than I do. You know what he'd like best. I just help you...color outside the lines a little." Like the time Evan had suggested Rodney take John on a Ferris wheel he'd rented out for just the two of them for their anniversary and bribe the carnie to let them pause at the top so they could make out for a little bit. It had been grandiose and crazy but John had loved it. Evan was better at remembering the little details about people than Rodney was. It was why he'd been such a damn fine XO on Atlantis.

"Then advise me. This is a big deal."

Evan studied him again, this time less intensely, and nodded. "Okay. Let me get this done and covered and into the fridge, and we can talk."

Rodney nodded and, as a courtesy, put on a kettle for tea, then sat at the kitchen table and waited. He shouldn't have been surprised when Evan ducked out of the kitchen after stowing the stuffing and returned with a sketchbook.

One of the other reasons Evan had been such a damn fine XO on Atlantis was that he was a meticulous planner. He flipped open the sketchbook, and he had –

Rodney's heart crawled into his throat. Evan had a dozen different proposal scenarios. Indoors, outdoors (none on holidays, because that was just too awkward). One at the SGC, which involved Evan drawing some elaborate backdrop on the whiteboards in the lab and getting down on one knee (he had preliminary sketches of the backdrops). One on Atlantis, which Joe had never been to on his own. On the balcony outside control. Another version in a jumper. In this very kitchen, with every available surface covered in flowers (and he had sketches of several possible flower arrangement options). Outdoors at Joe's favorite restaurant, with live musicians and Joe's mother waiting in the wings with her camera to witness it. Over an intimate candlelit dinner with the ring inside a cake (complete with several cake recipe options). At a botanical garden, with the trees strung with ribbons and fairy lights. With a painting of Joe wearing a ring (also complete with preliminary sketches and ring designs, because of course Evan would also design the damn ring).

Evan explained the pros and cons of each option and why he had so many, depending on the weather or Joe's mood or politics at the SGC or in the wider world or how Joe's work was doing or how his mother's health was doing, and Rodney's head spun listening to it all.

Evan even had a proposal in there that involved borrowing Sergeant Herriman's well-trained dog and having it deliver the ring attached to its collar.

Finally Rodney closed the book. "I...wow. You've given me a lot to think about."

Evan nodded earnestly. "If there's any one of these you'd especially like for John, let me know, and I can modify one, easy."

The candlelit dinner one looked promising. It was about the only one that didn't give Rodney a heart attack right off the bat.

Joe chose that moment to stroll into the kitchen. Evan flipped the sketchbook shut and turned it over so smoothly that Rodney might have suspected him of being a magician (or a pick-pocket). Joe, depositing his keys and wallet in the key basket (John and Rodney's bowl was just inside the front door, Joe and Evan's was on the side table in the kitchen that was basically Evan's second office), didn't notice.

"Hey, you two, what's going on?" Joe made a beeline for the fridge and his beloved orange juice, which he always labeled NO RODNEY NO in giant letters while he put the groceries away. He drank some straight out of the carton, because no one else would touch the stuff, and then wandered over to kiss Evan hello.

"Is John with you?" Evan asked.

"No. He had to stay on base a little longer. Carter wanted to run an idea past Rodney about something but she wanted to test it on Physicist first to see how stupid you'd think it is," Joe said, nodding at Rodney.

Evan grinned. "Rodney wants to propose to John."

Rodney cringed, waiting for Joe's matching grin, because Evan and Joe were incorrigible. When one of them got a crazy idea, the other one enabled it to the eleventh degree, which was how Rodney's forty-fifth birthday had gone from a simple dinner at his favorite restaurant to a massive banquet with the top physicists from several planets in attendance.

Joe's expression darkened. "Oh."

Evan's grin faded. "Oh? You don't think it's a good idea?"

Rodney's pulse stuttered. "You think he won't marry me? That he won't say yes?"

"He's been in love with you for so long I don't think he would be himself if he ever fell out of love with you," Joe said, and Rodney must have looked panicked because Joe added hastily, "not that he'd ever fall out of love with you."

"But you think he won't marry Rodney," Evan said flatly.

Rodney's heart sank. "That's why he's never asked me."

Joe shook his head quickly. "No, it's just. He has bad memories of marriage. Nancy and all."

A frisson of anger spiked through Rodney when he thought of Nancy and her role in John and Joe's misery at the Dollhouse. John's marriage to her had basically been emotional and sexual servitude to make it easier for her to keep him in line for the Dollhouse.

"But this would be a real marriage," Evan pointed out.

"I didn't say it wouldn't be." Joe sank down in the chair beside Evan and sighed. "It's just – I don't know if John ever would have married a woman, had Topher not programmed it into him. And he's not into grandiose gestures of romance. He likes being on the receiving end of the ones you and Evan plan for him, but he prefers small things. Subtle things. Quiet things."

Like the CD of piano versions of all of Rodney's favorite songs that had turned up on his desk at work one day, for seemingly no reason at all, that must have taken John and Pianist hours to arrange and record and mix.

"Since John isn't particularly traditional when it comes to romance, Topher sat down with Nancy and they plotted a terribly elaborate proposal and then Topher programmed it into John and...well. You remember when John was really, really sick about a week after everything went down with Thelan and Phoebus?"

Rodney and Evan nodded.

"We helped him kick Thelan out," Joe said. "It was why he recovered faster than Elizabeth even though her imprint should have worn off sooner. So he made friends with us, and that was when the memories really started coming back, and at dinner one night, for dessert, they served the same flavor of cake he and Nancy shared the night he proposed and – yeah. Puked his guts out. Sick for a week. He wasn't even in control half of the time – the rest of us took turns cleaning him up, making sure he stayed hydrated and fed, checked in with the right people so no one would get too worried."

Evan's expression was grim, sorrowful. He reached out and curled his fingers through Joe's, squeezed gently. Joe smiled sadly at him. Whatever horror John had gone through as a Dollhouse active, Joe had gone through it right alongside him.

"So he's never going to ask me to marry him." Rodney's heart sank.

Joe nodded. "It's irrational, but probably not."

Rodney sat back, thinking.

"Doesn't mean he won't say yes if you ask him," Evan said. He glanced at Joe, who nodded.

Joe licked his lips, took a deep breath. "Look, I – I'm not supposed to do this. We're not supposed to tell on each other. It's about tantamount to pulling a Cadman –"

Rodney winced at the reminder, but he knew he could, in some tiny way, relate to what John had been through with all those imprints in his head.

"But John used to imagine, sometimes, being married to you. You know, years down the road, retired from the Air Force, living on Atlantis, maybe adopting a couple of kids orphaned by the Wraith Wars. So I think it's safe to say he would say yes if you asked him."

Rodney was torn between being grateful for Joe's insight into John and worried that Joe had broken his promise of confidentiality to John. He settled for, "Thanks for telling me." He thought of Evan's insane sketchbook of proposal plans and winced again. "So how do I even ask?"

"Just ask," Joe said. "Nothing fancy."

"Okay." Rodney nodded. "Nothing fancy."

And that was the end of the conversation. But it wasn't the end of Rodney's constant wondering. Just because it wasn't fancy didn't mean it shouldn't be special. He thought and thought and thought, and finally he had a plan.

Both couples had regular date nights that they literally had on their schedules (no one on base knew what the DN on their work calendars meant but everyone knew not to schedule anything during that time unless it was a presidential-level concern and not to call during that time unless it was a foothold-level emergency). Rodney decided to ask John on one of their regular date nights A) so it wouldn't be a big fancy deal and B) so he wouldn't guess what Rodney was up to. He asked Joe about John's favorite foods, which he felt wasn't too intrusive a thing to ask, and then he asked Evan to help him cook said foods. Evan provided Rodney with a large wicker basket lined with gingham, a bottle of John's favorite wine, and some candles and matches. Rodney took care of the rest – blanket (that Traci had quilted, because she could also quilt), telescope, star chart, and a little iPod radio set-up, because John occasionally liked to make out with music on in the background.

When John got home from the base, he dropped off his laptop in the office and kissed Rodney hello. Then he stepped back and looked at the massive picnic basket.

"That for date night?" John asked.

"Yup. Let's go. I'm sure Evan and Joe are eager to have the house to themselves," Rodney said.

Evan and Joe, standing at the stove and having a polite disagreement about some kind of Irish stew Joe insisted was a family recipe, cast them matching innocent smiles.

Yeah. There was going to be naked painting time for them tonight, Rodney was sure of it.

But he scooped up the basket and hustled John out to the car so they could go to a good observation spot outside of the city, away from the worst of the light pollution. During the drive, they chattered about their respective days, the projects and assignments they were working on, their opinions on the newest wave of marines sent to Atlantis (basically hand-picked by Evan and approved by John). The closer they got to their stargazing spot, the more their conversation turned to Atlantis. It was something they did once in a while, turned their gazes up to the stars to remind themselves of their place in the universe. Being out among the stars, waging battles and wars, made it easy to forget that they were really just a small part of the universe in the end.

Sometimes, too, they tried to find the stars of the Pegasus Galaxy, imagined Ronon and Teyla and so many of their other friends there looking up at the same sky.

John set up the blanket and picnic basket while Rodney set up the telescope and lit the candles. Evan had swaddled all of the Tupperware containers in dish cloths to preserve the warmth of the food as much as possible and also so they didn't need a morass of napkins to make it through the meal. In the interest of making the dinner special, Evan had forced Rodney to do the majority of the cooking, so Rodney was nervous that the food hadn't come out as well as it could have, especially since John was the better cook of the two of them. But John was pleased and grateful that Rodney had taken the time to pack all his favourites. When Rodney shyly confessed that he'd done the cooking, John rewarded him by pinning him to the blanket and kissing him thoroughly. If that was the reward for good cooking, no wonder Evan was so good at it.

John especially liked the gooey brownies Rodney had baked, which led to the exchange of chocolate-flavored kisses and hands sliding under shirts till John pulled back, gasping, and said, "Maybe we should slow it down just a little. If you want to be able to do this in a bed."

"Sorry," Rodney panted. "You're just –"

John grinned against his collarbone. "I know. So are you." He rolled off of Rodney, and they lay side-by-side, gazing up at the sky till their heartbeats returned to normal.

"So," John said, "how about we blow out the candles and look at some stars?"

Rodney nodded, but he reached out, curled his hand into John's, tucked a band of metal into his palm. (He'd designed it. Evan had got one of his artist jeweler friends to make it.)

"Marry me?"

John went still and silent beside him.

Rodney's heart roared in his ears. _Please say yes please say yes please say yes please say –_

"Yes," John breathed and rolled on top of him once more, sealed his mouth over Rodney's.

They made love in the candlelight, hands clasped so tightly that the twin indentations in their palms from the ring hadn't faded by the time they made it down the mountain and back home.

Evan was in his art studio washing his paintbrushes and his shower was running, but as soon as he saw the ring on John's hand, he hollered for Joe, and Joe came skittering out of the shower, damp and still half covered in paint and wearing nothing but a towel, and there were hugs and cheers and someone opened a bottle of champagne, and Rodney was pretty sure this was the happiest he'd ever been.


End file.
